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Los-Nr. 47,
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CHURCHILL, Winston S. (1874-1965). Lord Randolph Churchill . London: Macmillan and Co., 1906. Two volumes, 8 o. Two frontispiece portraits and 16 plates. (Some light foxing.) Original red cloth, gilt-lettered on front cover and spine (old rectangular [tape?] stain on spine of vol. I, front inner hinge of vol. I weak, lightly soiled). Provenance : Joseph Rowlands (presentation inscription). "FEW FATHERS HAVE DONE LESS FOR THEIR SONS. FEW SONS HAVE DONE MORE FOR THEIR FATHERS... PERHAPS THE GREATEST FILIAL TRIBUTE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE" (Sir Shane Leslie, Churchill's first cousin, The End of a Chapter , p.110) FIRST EDITION, A PRE-PUBLICATION PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY CHURCHILL TO BIRMINGHAM CONSERVATIVE LEADER JOSEPH ROWLANDS on the front free endpaper in vol. I: "Joseph Rowlands Esq. from Winston S. Churchill 1 Jan 1906." Publication was the day after, on 2 January. This is most likely one of approximately 75 copies the publisher sent Churchill for presentation to close political associates of himself and his father. Joseph Rowlands is mentioned on no fewer than six pages in the book, the first on p.258 of vol. I. Rowlands, the leader of the Conservative party in Birmingham, frequented London in order to induce Lord Randolph to stand for that city. Rowlands smoothed the way for Lord Randolph's election in 1886. A dispute in Birmingham is described on page 391 of vol. II: "A crowded meeting was held, at which Mr. Rowlands was bold enough to say that the Birmingham Conservatives were not prepared to bow down to anything that might be settled in London..." Balfour stood to try to salve the crowd. "Some acquiesced; some stood aside for a time. The part Mr. Rowlands had played had been too bold and prominent for retreat or pardon. Birmingham politics are bitter." Rowlands soon resigned his offices, but Churchill notes that "he should be remembered for having carried out the arrangement of 1886" and for "his firmness and courage amid peculiar and uncertain circumstances." In 1886, Lord Randolph became chancellor of the exchequer and leader of the House of Commons. The list of references to Rowlands in the index has been emended to include one missed page, presumably by Rowlands himself. In 1902, Churchill persuaded his father's literary executors to permit him to write Randolph's life; the research and writing took four years. The book was published in an edition of 8,000 copies, timed to coincide with Churchill's candidacy in the elections. Woods A8(a). A FINE ASSOCIATION COPY, INSCRIBED TO ONE OF HIS FATHER'S POLITICAL ALLIES. (2)